The AI tool, funded by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), helps recycle end-of-life batteries from products as big as an EV car and as small as a vape by detecting and removing materials such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt and reusing them.

“This project addresses a major national security concern as the United States imports most of our battery materials used for domestic battery cell production facilities from China and other parts of the world,” said Dan Radomski, CEO of Centrepolis Accelerator, the business assistance arm of LTU that supports physical product developers.

“It is critical that we secure end-of-life batteries and reprocess them in a cost-effective way to enable a local source of minerals that can be used again in Michigan and other domestic battery cell production operations,” he added.

A 2022 study found that the world would need to build 400 new mines by 2035 to meet EV and energy storage battery demand.

According to Radomski, most lithium-ion batteries have lithium, nickel, and cobalt, yet almost 90% of those minerals are mined and processed in China.

He added that the US only has one nickel mine. It’s estimated that the country would need 72 to meet requirements for domestic production of batteries.

In addition, Liz Browne, director of EGLE’s materials management division, said disposable vape pens that hold lithium-ion batteries are increasingly appearing in landfills.

She said that finding a way to recycle the elements inside is essential.

EGLE also awarded nearly $1.5 million to the University of Michigan for a plan to create a 500-kilowatt, grid-tired energy storage system by reusing old EV batteries. Over $700,000 also went to Michigan State University’s battery recycling project.

The post US university scientists to develop AI technology for recycling EV and vape batteries appeared first on TechInformed.

At a glance…

• • ✦ Meta and OpenAI expanded their AI offerings to the world
• ✦ The threat of AI shook governments around the world into action
• ✦ Sustainability: Poo-powered planes to the rescue!

April: Earthquakes and Space Grapes

Amazon cuts hundreds of roles at AWS

Amazon Web Services announced plans to axe hundreds of jobs across sales, marketing and global services. The plans were revealed in an email sent to staff, as executives said the cloud company was to shift its focus to self-serve digital training and training programs run by external partners.

AWS senior vice president Matt Garman said, “The changes we are making are preparing the organisation for the future, aligning with our strategy and priorities, and reducing duplication and inefficiency.”

Amazon also announced it would be ditching AI-powered checkouts in the US.

Meta released its AI service, Llama, to the public

Meta released Llama 3, an advanced AI model that claimed to be more powerful than OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. It featured significant upgrades, including reasoning abilities, multilingual support, and multimodal potential, driven by its 8B and 70B parameter models—seven times larger than its predecessor, Llama 2.

Integrated with Meta AI, it became accessible on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp in the US. In the same month, OpenAI released its voice engine to select partners.

UK Space Agency awards grant to grow food in space

The UK Space Agency granted agritech firm Vertical Future (VF) £1.5 million to advance its mission of taking vertical farms into outer space.

VF, a UK-based specialist in vertical farming technology, initiated the second phase of its Autonomous Agriculture for Space Exploration project. It is adapting its Earth-based controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) systems for Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is expected to launch in 2026.

VF’s project, part of the UK Space Agency’s £20 million International Bilateral Fund, aimed to expand its CEA systems to the Moon and Mars in the 2030s.

Chip plant evacuations follow strong Taiwan earthquake

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), a key supplier for Apple and Nvidia, evacuated several fabrication plants following a powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Taiwan. The quake, the strongest in 25 years, struck the eastern province of Hualien, claiming seven lives, injuring 700, and leaving 77 trapped in tunnels.

Taiwan, responsible for producing 60% of the world’s semiconductors, faced significant global supply chain risks when its fabs were affected, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the same month, just across the East China Sea, South Korea pledged to invest $7 billion in AI to retain its edge in chip manufacturing.

May: AI Deepfakes and Cyber-Attacks

An ad agency boss was the target of a deepfake scam

Mark Read, CEO of advertising giant WPP, was targeted in a sophisticated deepfake scam. Scammers used a fake WhatsApp account with Read’s publicly available image to initiate a Microsoft Teams meeting with a senior WPP executive.

During the call, they employed a voice clone and YouTube footage of Read, impersonating him in real-time to request sensitive information and financial actions.

The attempt failed due to the vigilance of WPP staff. In an email, Read warned employees about evolving cyber threats and urged them to be cautious of suspicious requests involving money, passports, or “secret” transactions.

Expedia unveiled a travel buddy AI app for US customers

Expedia has unveiled Romie, an AI-powered travel assistant, along with additional features at its Explore event in Las Vegas.

Romie’s capabilities include learning travellers’ preferences for activities, food, and accommodations, integrating into group trip planning chats, summarising discussions, and making suggestions. The app also extracts travel details from emails and recommends nearby restaurants or activities during trips.

Expedia also extended AI-powered tools to partners, including personalised itineraries, price comparison tools, and guest review summaries for app users in the US.

UK Ministry of Defence hit by major cyber-attack

The UK Ministry of Defence’s payroll system, managed by SSCL, was hacked, exposing sensitive data of 270,000 armed forces personnel, including names, bank details, and addresses. While Whitehall sources suggested Chinese involvement, the government did not officially name a perpetrator, and China denied any role.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps announced an eight-point response plan, including system security measures, investigations, data monitoring, and a helpline for affected individuals. No operational data was compromised, but the breach raised concerns about supply chain vulnerabilities.

Global AI regulation efforts prompted US-China talks

The US and China convened in Geneva to discuss artificial intelligence’s risks and governance challenges, focusing on security and ethical concerns. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi addressed misunderstandings and explored global AI norms despite competitive tensions.

Experts emphasised the importance of cooperation, highlighting the need for privacy, fairness, and adherence to regulations for AI to succeed globally. However, trust issues and safeguarding strategic sectors like healthcare and energy remained critical barriers.

Did the FBI misidentify the leader of Lockbit?

The FBI and the UK’s National Crime Agency identified Dmitry Khoroshev as the leader of the ransomware gang LockBit following a cyberattack on the group earlier in the year. Khoroshev was sanctioned and banned from travelling to the US, UK, and Australia. He denied the allegations, claiming to have no connection to the gang.

LockBit dismissed the claims, offering a reward to confirm Khoroshev’s well-being. While experts were uncertain if the FBI correctly unmasked the leader, they believed Khoroshev was connected to the group.

June: Self-Driving Taxis in San Fran, plus the NHS Got Hacked

Ransomware gang leak 400GB of NHS data from London hospital hack

Hackers from the Russian gang Qilin leaked nearly 400GB of sensitive patient data stolen during a ransomware attack on Synnovis, an NHS blood testing partner. The attack disrupted pathology services across London hospitals, delaying over 3,000 appointments and operations.

Despite demands for $50 million, Synnovis and NHS officials refused to pay. The leaked data reportedly included patient names, dates of birth, and blood test results.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX was hired to decommission the International Space Station

NASA awarded SpaceX a contract worth $843 million (£668 million) to safely decommission the International Space Station (ISS) early next decade. SpaceX will develop a de-orbit vehicle to guide the 430-tonne station into Earth’s atmosphere, ensuring a controlled descent to Point Nemo, a remote Pacific location.

Operational since 2000, the ISS remains structurally sound, but NASA aims to prevent uncontrolled re-entry. After the ISS’s retirement, the agency will focus on commercial space stations and the Lunar Gateway project, a moon-orbiting platform.

Nvidia was named the world’s most valuable listed company (again)

Nvidia leapfrogged Apple and Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable listed company, driven by the AI boom. The American chipmaker’s share price hit an all-time high, with the company valued at $3.34tn (£2.63tn) at the time — almost double the value at the start of 2024.

Apple partnered with ChatGPT for AI integration in iPhones

Apple unveiled “Apple Intelligence” at its Worldwide Developers Conference, integrating ChatGPT into Siri to enhance AI-driven features across iOS, iPad, and Mac devices. CEO Tim Cook emphasised privacy, with local AI processing and minimal data collection.

Siri gained improved context-aware capabilities, while new tools like “Rewrite” and “Proofread” refined text and tone. The event also highlighted the global rollout of the Vision Pro headset.

Waymo made its self-driving taxis available to everyone in San Francisco

Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous driving company, made its self-driving taxi service available to everyone in San Francisco. After receiving approval from the California Public Utilities Commission, Waymo operated its commercial driverless service 24/7, despite earlier complaints about traffic disruptions.

Previously limited to a waitlist, the service became accessible via the Waymo app. Nearly 300,000 people signed up for rides as the company sought to build public trust in autonomous vehicles. Waymo operated around 300 self-driving taxis in San Francisco, with additional fleets in Phoenix and Los Angeles.

Continue reading — Q3 Wrapped Up: The Top Tech Stories of July to September

The post Q2 Wrapped Up: the top tech stories of April to June 2024 appeared first on TechInformed.

So says Brian Allen, a deep tech entrepreneur who specialises in survey and subsea technology to support offshore windfarm projects.

Allen made this statement back in September, after it was announced that two subsea businesses, Rovco and Vaarst – which he founded in 2016 and 2021 respectively – would merge under the new brand name of Beam to develop and deploy AI and autonomy enabled services in the offshore wind sector.

Beam’s mission, Allen added, is to deliver real world impact in the offshore wind industry by making it cost competitive with oil and gas “a pivotal step in ending the world’s dependence on fossil fuels.”

Against the tide

Wind farms are proving popular in governments’ energy strategies, given the falling costs of provision and the fact that turbines can be placed ever further out to sea.

But there are challenges. Traditionally offshore windfarm inspection involves dispatching large vessels which carry tethered, underwater robots (Remotely Operated Vehicles) which are used throughout the year to monitor turbines, the integrity of cables and other structures that connect to the seabed.

Firms like Beam are starting to address these issues by leveraging artificial Intelligence, 3D Vision and autonomous robotics. The Bristol-based company’s autonomous robotic solutions have been used in significant projects such as the Seagreen Wind Farm in Scotland, which is the largest offshore site in the country.

Scouting for bines

Beam’s latest capability, Scout, was unveiled at Web Summit in Lisbon earlier this month. Scout is a self-driving subsea robotic system that Beam claims will perform inspections autonomously, using AI and real-time 4K reconstructions and precise navigation to deliver inspections that are quicker and more cost effective.

Beam intends for Scout to be deployed directly by people working on crew transfer vessels during routine visits. This, Beam added, would allow a wider pool of people to manage the subsea maintenance of wind farms and their turbines, helping to alleviate the current offshore wind skills gap which may threaten the sector’s ability to scale.

Beam cofounder and executive VP of service innovation Joe Tidball told TechInformed. “Governments are pushing offshore wind as a viable energy source, but not enough people are involved. In the UK alone there are only 30,000 people in UK offshore wind industries and [for wind energy to be viable] we will need 100,000 by 2030. That’s 70,000 needed.

“Technologies like Scout and the AI processing of the data and us being able to get around these sites more quickly is vital to support the growth of wind as well,” he said.

A deep tech dive

According to Beam CTO Kari Dempsey, Scout is a culmination of many years of technical development. The underwater AV comprises of four key elements including Subslam, a perception system that works up to 6 KM under water and provides 3D reconstructions and stereo 4K video.

“This gives Scout the ability to see, essentially, and to create the 3D models that are critical for doing types of predictive analytics,” she explained.

A second element of Scout is an edge computing AI which gives the robotic vehicle the contextual understanding it needs to act independently.

The third element is sonar sensors and DVLs (the latter measure the speed and direction of UVs), which Dempsey said were important to ensure the inspection bot retained a holistic view while submerged.

 “One of the real challenges is visibility so even in a clear environment you can kick up sand from the floor and then you can’t see so you need a range of sensors,” she explained.

The fourth element of Scout, said Dempsey, was its autonomy algorithms – which were developed “in the wild” on previous projects over a four-year period.

“The algorithms we are using now can assess any kind of infrastructure without having any prior knowledge of it. This gives Scout the ability to navigate and map the environment that it’s in,” she added.

Scout and many of Beam’s other robots are controlled by Pathfinder, also developed by the tech firm, which is an AI-powered operating system that manages the navigation of robots without the need for human interaction.

The 3D, 4K video and other sensor data from Scout is processed using EdgeAI to collate the valuable information into smaller data packages. These packages are then uploaded to Beam’s ‘Vaantage’ data platform, where the required team members can access the information.

Digital twin

Speaking to TI at Web Summit, Tidball suggested that the data from Scout might be packaged into a digital twin 3D reconstruction of the environment which would help energy providers keep a closer eye on some of their smaller ‘problem child’ assets.

“If a windfarm has 100 assets, they may usually have six or seven ‘problem children’ that regularly have issues. Where Scout will operate is when the windfarm is up and running and turbines are spinning, and they are a business.

“Energy firms will want to spend as little money as possible maintaining their assets – but they will still need to maintain them at quite a high standard. It can cost a lot to bring in a large boat just to focus on smaller portion of the assets.

Scout – which is due to enter the market next year – will enable Beam’s customers to regularly go back in their own time frame, without a third-party crew. “We supply them with a smaller robot that they can deploy themselves,” he added.

According to Tidball, larger vessel projects using Beam’s technology typically happen that the beginning and the end of a windfarm’s life “and can run into millions.”

He claims that Scout’s AV reduces inspection time costs by “one or two orders of magnitude,” which suggests that the difference could range from 10 times to 100 times less than the traditional cost.

These calculations might seem vague. but for those interested on ROI for such projects, watch out for an independent report into windfarm technologies that is due to be published early next year.

Beam is currently operating in 19 countries and boasts over 90 customers worldwide, Tidball added. While the firm’s focus is on renewables, it also does end-of-life decommissioning for the Oil and Gas industry – Beam’s technology is useful for detecting assets and assessing their condition, some of which have been lying under the sea for more than half a century.

While the UK is the world leader in offshore wind, powering over 7.5m homes last year and becoming the nation’s main renewable energy source, Tidball says that growth in Europe is currently 3.5 times faster – and he added that Beam is set to open an office in in Germany next year.

The post Beam me down: one company’s mission to reduce cost of offshore wind appeared first on TechInformed.

A pilot scheme delivered by Digital Catapult in partnership with AF Blakemore & Son, the family-run owner of Spar supermarkets, explored how using a shared digital infrastructure system could establish more intelligent vehicle slot filling, routing, and tracking.

UK freight accounts for 31% of all UK transport CO2 emissions, and statistics from the Department for Transport show that 30% of trucks on UK roads are running with empty loads.

The sector is under pressure to decarbonise without compromising on efficiency, and the pilot project set out to prove that technology could be harnessed to help achieve this.

The project, Logistics Living Lab, was trialled in a real-world environment, and combined distributed ledger technology (DLT), the internet of things and an algorithm developed by project partner Fuuse, to optimise route planning and truck use.

Digital Catapult claimed that it was able to match vehicle transport capacity with shipment needs across multiple UK organisations, which saw a 37% decrease in overall transport costs and a 9% improvement in vehicle fill rate for AF Blakemore & Son.

Scaling of the solution would allow competing logistics providers to safely share information on available truck space across their collective fleets, without the need for a single party to have full control or visibility of the entire system, he non-profit, UK innovation agency claimed,

It added that that UK logistics play a critical role in driving economic growth, contributing £163 billion to the economy, and serving as a vital link between the UK and the global market.

Tim Lawrence, director of the Digital Supply Chain Hub at Digital Catapult said: “The solutions built through this collaboration deliver a triple benefit to the UK logistics sector by empowering the organisations that make up our complex supply chains, to become more efficient, reduce costs to improve their bottom line and make a lasting environmental difference.”

The project’s finding have been published in a report, accessible through the Digital Supply Chain Hub.

Digital Catapult and its partners plan to scale the project to further decarbonise the UK logistics sector.

The agency also launched two further supply chain accelerators designed to fund tracking and sustainability efforts in September this year.

The post Digital logistics pilot to catapult the decarbonisation of road haulage appeared first on TechInformed.

Externally, the digital transformation of the near century-old toymaker is clear. No longer is the brand just associated with plastic bricks, cupped hands, and yellow cylindrical heads. Instead, 2024’s children see Lego products across film—most recently in the form of Piece by Piece, a biopic about American musician Pharrell Williams—TV, and video and mobile gaming.

But as the world’s most popular toy manufacturer, with over 1000 stores worldwide and revenue results as large as almost kr.66 billion ($9 billion) in 2023—up 2% in a declining toy market—Lego also has a physical challenge to confront: sustainability and operational efficiency on a large scale.

According to the University of Plymouth, Lego bricks will take anywhere between 100 and 1,300 years to break down in the ocean, for example—However, a Lego study suggests that 96% of families in the UK, France, and Germany pass on their bricks, whether to their friends, family, or charity.

Plus, the brickmaker also tried to move to an oil-free, recyclable material last year but made the move to ditch it as it says it would have led to higher carbon emissions.

In 2023, the firm increased spending on environmental initiatives by 60%, with plans to double by 2025, it says, and a move to increase the use of sustainable materials—aiming to make all bricks sustainable by 2032.

In this context, how can digital technologies help Lego achieve its sustainability goals while streamlining operations to meet demand and engage children, whether on their screens or living room floors?

Piecing it together

Since joining four years ago, Atul Bhardwaj has led the digital transformation at Lego. He has scaled the IT team from 600 to 1,800, pushing tech talent behind its digital transformation – which he claims is the single largest investment Lego has made in its 93-year-old history

“The journey involved examining everything from how we worked, to what we did, to the capabilities we had, and transforming it,” Bhardwaj says, as he sits down with TI at Web Summit in Lisbon.

“We also built a digital product organisation, which we didn’t have before. We built it in a federated manner inside the business, so it doesn’t report to me, but I was involved in setting it up,” says Bhardwaj.

Ultimately, nurturing technology and uplifting talent, was the goal. In fact, for the first time, this year Lego held four internal developer conferences called ‘DevCon’, which saw 500 members of its IT team in Billund, Copenhagen, London and Shanghai come together to get an understanding of what each team was working on.

“DevCon was all about developers sharing the great things they’re building and learning from each other,” says Bhardwaj.

“We aimed to explore what each team was doing, particularly regarding GenAI, and how we could work together. It was about nurturing curiosity and continuous learning as part of our culture.”

Goodbye yellow brick road

With five factories across three continents—Asia, Europe, and South America—and plans to open two more in Vietnam and the US in the coming years, Lego’s expansive supply chain network requires efficient technology.

“Whether it’s a partner, a store, or a person who’s ordered online, we’ve automated it,” says Bhardwaj. “We’ve also automated systems so that our retail team can place the right stock in the right location at the right time, replacing old spreadsheet methods.”

Additionally, to better serve its customers, Lego has created a unified ID system across its website and other platforms, enabling more personalised interactions.

To support high-traffic events like Black Friday, the company is also leveraging cloud technology to ensure scalability. “We work with cloud vendors but also build a lot of the technology ourselves since we have the capability,” Bhardwaj adds.

Building a Lego (green) house

With a long history of plastic bricks, and a large footprint over the earth, Lego claims to be making a conscious effort to clean up its path and Bhardwaj explains how technology plays a pivotal role in this.

“From a technology perspective, we support our strong sustainability initiatives in three areas: carbon data management, circular business through brick recognition and sortation, and operational sustainability,” he says.

By moving away from single-use plastics in packaging, enhancing energy efficiency in their offices and factories, and collecting energy data to minimise consumption, Lego is laying down the foundations for a more sustainable future. “These are the kinds of steps we’re taking to support our sustainability goals.”

But sustainability at Lego isn’t just about what’s in the box; it’s also about what’s outside.

Bhardwaj underscores how Lego is integrating circular business models through brick recognition technology, allowing for better sorting and reusing of materials. These measures are designed to reduce waste while promoting a circular economy, he says, where every Lego piece has a second life.

With this, the firm hopes to work with suppliers on cutting emissions down and help it achieve its sustainability targets of cutting emissions by 37% by 2036, and achieving net-zero by 2050.

Play well

At the same time, Lego is carefully balancing its focus on physical play with emerging digital experiences. As Bhardwaj notes, “Firstly, we will always be a physical toy company. Our digital games are a part of our physical experience, but the physical experience will always dominate for us.”

He adds that this emphasis on physical play is at the heart of Lego’s mission to inspire learning and creativity. Yet, Lego recognises the growing role of digital spaces in children’s lives.

“We know that children, particularly boys and girls aged 9-12, engage in platforms like Fortnite. We believed we were uniquely positioned to offer a safe and secure digital experience for children, so we partnered with Epic to make this possible,” Bhardwaj adds.

Through this partnership, Lego is not only providing engaging digital experiences but ensuring that these platforms are safe, enriching spaces for children.

As a brand whose name literally translates from the Danish word “play well” Bhardwaj reflects on Lego’s central ideals: “Our core mission is inspiring and developing children to learn through play, making sure all children can do that.”

Whether through physical bricks or innovative digital experiences, he says Lego remains committed to fostering a space where learning and creativity go hand in hand.

“Physical play is crucial and we also know that we can augment this with a digital play experience, where physical and digital converge.”

The post Lego: Building the foundation for digital transformation appeared first on TechInformed.

Ricki and James look at nuclear power’s role in meeting the surging energy needs of data centres, which are projected to double their power consumption by 2026.

However, public perception around nuclear waste remains a barrier to widespread adoption, even as big tech companies are exploring partnerships with nuclear energy providers to support their energy-hungry operations.

Read more: Will tomorrow’s cloud be nuclear-powered?

Transitioning to agriculture, Ricki is joined by TechInformed’s deputy editor, Ann-Marie Corvin, as the discussion shifts focus to autonomous farming technology and its potential to address ongoing labour shortages while improving agricultural efficiency.

Special guest Craig Rupp, CEO and founder of Sabanto, shares his firsthand experience using AI to retrofit tractors with autonomous capabilities, making farming more sustainable and appealing to a younger generation.

AgriTech – is the future of farming automated?

Craig emphasises that farming’s future depends on technology adoption, from remote monitoring to the flexibility provided by autonomy kits, which can significantly extend operational hours and cut labour costs.

Tune in to discover how innovations in energy and autonomous farming are creating a more sustainable future, tackling pressing issues from climate change to labour shortages, and redefining industries along the way.

The post TI:TALKS: Big Tech goes nuclear, and automated farming with Sabanto appeared first on TechInformed.

The planned 2.5 billion Euro transformation is set to lead to a discontinuation of crude oil refining in Neste’s Porvoo refinery located in Finland by the mid-2030s.

TechInformed met Dietrich at a public sauna in Helsinki, thanks to a pre-arranged business trip organised by the Finnish Embassy in London, where she explained more about how this circularity works in practice.

At one of the organisation’s refineries in the Netherlands, for instance, it has a partnership with McDonalds and truck firm HAVI to take used cooking oil from 250 restaurants in the region and convert it into Neste’s treated renewable diesel.

As the temperature rose in the coal-fired sauna on a blustery autumn evening by the Baltic Sea, we were also keen to discuss Finland’s education system, regarded as one of the best in the world, as well as one of Dietrich’s passionate subjects: how to encourage more women and girls to take up STEM careers.

What does your role at Neste involve?

I’m vice president in HR for the oil products business. Neste has three business units: One is renewables, one is oil products, and the third one is marketing and services.  I’m in the leadership team of this business in oil products and we are simultaneously leading the current Oil Products business and preparing for the transformation.

In terms of transforming Porvoo into a renewable and circular solutions refining hub, how far are you along this journey?

Renewable fuel production started in Porvoo in 2007. Today, we produce renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel as well as raw material for the production of plastics, all made from 100% renewable raw materials.

Neste has already started with modifying existing refinery units so they can be used for “co-processing” which is replacing fossils with renewable or recycled raw materials. We have capability now to handle liquified waste plastics but not yet a full scale.

Currently, an upgrading facility for refining liquefied waste plastic is also being built. In a later phase, the refinery’s existing assets will be retrofitted into pure renewable or recycled raw material refining units.

We’re still trying to get our heads around how McDonald’s waste can be turned into diesel. Can you take us through the process?

From McDonald’s among others, the oil that has been used for cooking, is collected to be used as a raw material. We source used cooking oil  globally from collectors and aggregators in multiple countries in APAC, Europe and in the U.S., among others. In the US, Mahony Environmental, which is a leading collector of reused cooking oils in the States, is owned by us.

Similarly, we have made acquisitions in Europe that specialise sourcing of waste and residuals of oils and fats. It’s a huge sourcing and logistics business. 

Then what we do is transfer the used cooking oil to our refinery where we pre-treat the oil – it contains various types of impurities such as metals, solids, phosphorus that need to be removed. 

We have developed a patented technology and that’s the process where our refinery treats this oil. Compared with fossil raw material, biogenic fats and oils contain oxygen that is also an undesired element in fuels. So the first stage of the process is to remove oxygen atoms using hydrogen.

In the second stage of process hydrocarbons are isomerized to tune the properties of the end products for different product applications such as road transportation fuels, aviation fuels or raw materials for polymers and chemicals.

Who uses your products?

Our renewable diesel is used by retailers, fleets, municipalities, in data centers, in the mining and in the marine sector. Our Sustainable Aviation Fuel is used by airlines such as Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, United Airlines and airports.

Customers for renewable polymers and chemicals are global consumer brands such as IKEA and polymer and chemical companies. In Oil Products our offering includes high-quality oil products and related services for road transportation, non-road uses, aviation and marine sectors.

What is the key to managing people during periods of transformation?

We have been educating all our leaders and managers, so they know how to lead people during the change – that’s something we’ve been investing in for a couple of years now.

It’s about making sure that everyone is involved. We are always clear about why we do something and outline what we plan to do in the short term and what we are doing long term. It’s about being very open and honest.

We’re planning to make the change so that no one is left behind. We do have a very solid competence development and training programme. When it comes to the transformation, we can utilise quite a few of the old assets that we have in place, so we are able to leverage a lot of experience from those working in the current operations.

However, there are new technologies and skills that will be required – in the pre-treatment process, for example. Again, when we plan these projects, it’s about involving our staff so that they can contribute and comment and are involved from these projects very early on so that they have time and opportunity to learn. 

Are you using any digital technologies to support you in the transition?

One of the key pillars of our success is the digitisation and continuous improvement of our processes both in business processes and operations. As a high technology company there are multiple fronts where we are using digital technologies, we have started to use robotics in many finance processes, we  are utilising 3D models for designing plants. 

We use  technologies in training – simulators to aid in learning how to run refinery complex production processes in a safe and reliable manner. With simulators we can also practise how to operate in disturbance / emergency mode, which you could never practise with running a refinery. 

These simulator exercises are part of the mandatory competence build-up program, which need to be completed before our operators get licence to operate.  We are on a journey to start to use AI in many ways. For example in our daily work – information searches we use our own internal AI and of course our own ChatGPT. 

Finland’s education system is often held up to be one of the best in the world. What do you think your country does well and where, if anywhere, do you think it could improve?

I agree that the Finnish education system is doing well. It has a strong emphasis on equal opportunities for all students regardless of their background or socioeconomic status. And this focus on equality is the thing that ensures that every child has a fair chance to success. And education is overall at a high level. There are not huge differences across different schools–so it doesn’t matter where you live.

The focus of the teaching is to enable deep learning–in comparison to the standardised testing practised by other nations. Teachers have quite a bit of autonomy to think about how to deliver their teaching and how they support different children. So that’s helping quite a bit.

Education is also compulsory until 18 and is then free of cost at university level. We also have an increased number of university places that support us in the engineering and technology areas.

Those are the positives. However, we have slipped down the league tables over the last couple of years, with declining results, big skills gaps and competence shortages. Also, we have recently seen that the children’s backgrounds are impacting a bit more on how they are doing at school.

From a business point of view, our industry is experiencing a skills shortage, and we need to think about where we get a skilled workforce for in the future. It’s a concern.

What do you think we can do to encourage more women and girls to embrace STEM-based careers?

That’s a huge question! One of the things I’d love to see is more visible role models and leading experts. I also think we should utilise media that speaks to the young. Engage in social media campaigns with influencers. Young people are more purpose-driven these days, and aspire to work for ethical companies, so we can emphasise this.

We should also go into primary schools and high schools and show them what type of career possibilities there are. From middle school or elementary school, we should introduce hands-on STEM activities so it’s not something mystifying. Everyone knows what teachers or police do – but the industries that we’re working in aren’t as visible.

As a business Neste is doing work with vocational schools; we are visiting middle schools we are working together closely with the universities. But there is only so much one company can do. I think it’s the industrial sector that needs to be acting as well.

What do you do to switch off from work?

I enjoy family time–I have three kids, a husband, a cat and a rabbit. We like to travel and eat nice food and invite friends over. We have common hobbies – snowboarding, sailing, windsurfing. We’re a sports family!

My individual time involves endurance sports. Triathlons. Last week I was in Portugal for an Ironman competition. That takes my mind out of work and calms down my body. It’s quite a journey: you get tired. Your mind is telling you to stop but you need to keep going. And so, you think “Run! Run! Run!”.

How do you take your coffee?

I’m a coffee lover so I drink a cappuccino in the morning, and in the afternoon, I might take an espresso. Lately, I’ve been trying to restrict myself to one but I’m slipping back to my old habits.

Is it true that all-important business decisions in Finland are taken in the sauna?

Yes, all of them! Well, maybe some of them are taken elsewhere!

Interested in sustainable fuel? Read: Turning sewage into fuel

The post A Coffee With…Maija Dietrich VP of Business HR, Oil Products, Neste appeared first on TechInformed.

But not all European cities have clean waterways. In London, protestors are set to march this weekend to campaign against unclean waters across the UK, where 24% of freshwater fish is currently at risk of extinction due to pollution.

In Denmark, swimming in the capital city of Copenhagen is nothing new. The Nyhavn River sees people joining dozens of species of fish for a dip on a daily basis, right in the city centre.

So why are fish in countries such as the UK under threat while the Danes can swim alongside cod and seatrout in their own capital? And how can other cities in the global north and businesses learn from Denmark’s environmental efforts?

Thomas Mikkelsen, chief project manager and water team lead for Danish water firm Clean, cites Denmark’s unified approach to protecting its waterways as one reason that biodiversity is flourishing in the capital.

“Denmark’s ecosystem exemplifies how high levels of trust and collaborative spirit can foster groundbreaking innovations,” Mikkelsen tells TI at TechBBQ in Copenhagen.

Clean supports around 300 members, ranging from small to large-sized companies, entrepreneurs, utilities, municipalities, regions and knowledge institutions.

It provides access to resources such as funding, mentorship, and networking opportunities and provides young companies an opportunity to innovate within their country and around the world – co-financed by the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science, the Danish Business Promotion Agency and the European Union.

Mikkelsen oversees Clean’s water-related activities, “from pipes and pumps in both drinking and wastewater systems to climate adaptation and water in open landscapes,” he explains.

Operation clean-up

It wasn’t always such a clear story for Denmark’s rivers. Back in 1995, Copenhagen had wastewater flowing directly into its harbour through 93 overflow channels. In order to clean things up, the city began a $440 million project to reroute the wastewater through underground basins.

Despite the investment, it still requires heavy, energy-intensive infrastructure to keep Danish water clean. A lot of investment is still needed, too, says Mikkelsen.

“When we talk about the infrastructure of our drinking water or wastewater, we transport a lot of volume around the pipes, and we need a lot of pumps which take a lot of energy,” he explains.

Recognising this, Clean is supporting Danish-based innovators and harnessing the power of big data to monitor energy efficiency, leak prevention, and stormwater management.

For instance, one firm under Clean’s wing is InflowGo – which uses AI and machine learning to predict the behaviour of stormwater to help with urban planning; another is InfoTiles, which also uses AI to streamline water and wastewater network management processes to help with data analysis and take on challenges in the energy sector.

Progress in this traditionally conservative sector isn’t without its challenges, he says. “The utility sector is a little bit dusty, a little conservative, and very much about the long-term perspective,” Mikkelsen observes.

A critical barrier, he highlights, is the perceived disinterest from the political sphere, which affects industry regulation. “There’s a lack of interest and understanding from the political side,” he continues.

“However, in Denmark, some utilities can now invest in start-ups, working on a 60/40 model, which wasn’t allowed before because they’re a publicly owned company,” Mikkelsen notes. This policy evolution signifies “a huge opportunity for innovation and co-development for start-ups,” enabling a flow of fresh ideas and technologies into the sector.

Resource, not waste

Mikkelsen further highlights the role of digitalisation and the circular economy in steering the sector toward sustainability. “Digitalisation is on the rise, and the circular economy agenda is gaining traction,” he says.

Denmark is currently utilising wastewater as a resource, recovering nutrients like phosphorus for agricultural use, and even achieving energy-positive wastewater treatment plants. “Viewing wastewater as a resource rather than waste fits within a circular system approach driving the industry forward,” Mikkelsen explains.

Yet, the journey toward a sustainable utility sector is not solely about implementing new technologies or strategies.

Mikkelsen emphasises the importance of building networks and fostering collaboration in an industry traditionally known for its conservatism and rigidity.

“Our mission is to connect the ecosystem, breaking down barriers and fostering openness,” he says.

While competition and group dynamics pose challenges, the aim is to promote cooperation. Denmark’s national objectives reflect this ethos by focusing on global challenges and positioning the country as a test bed for new technologies, albeit with some historical and political barriers. Encouraging collaboration, Mikkelsen states, “is a personal mission of mine.”

The post Is collaboration key to clean rivers and waterways? appeared first on TechInformed.

The structural engineer – who was responsible for managing transmission line infrastructure projects across 25 states and 4 Canadian provinces when he worked at the US Department of Energy – admits that most of his 36-year career has been spent working on newer designs.

Joining Exo four years ago has enabled him to view infrastructure in a more circular way: What can be remediated? How long can the lifecycle of a structure be extended by?

As a case in point, during Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure conference in Vancouver this year, Exo was invited to talk about a powerline project that involved extending the life of two electricity towers.

Located on the Ohio River, the Ohio Falls Hydro station includes two towers that were built in 1927 and support a transmission line crossing the river.

Rather than building a new crossing in a different location, the utility clients – LG&E and Kentucky Electric – wanted to see if they could reuse these towers and hired Miller’s firm Exo to investigate.

“You would take one look at these towers and say, ‘Get rid of them, they’re too old!’ – that’s our instinct as structural engineers – we’re so used to building new. But looking at something like this and trying to delve into it was a real challenge,” Miller recalls.

Design for life

The question at the centre of the investigation: What was the expected design life of this structure?  Was it 50 years? 100 years? There were no designs or drawings that existed that detailed the components that were used or hinted at the structure’s estimated longevity.

The towers primarily comprised of weathering steel – a chemically formulated metal developed to eliminate the need for painting through its ability to form a stable layer of rust.

Because of its rusty orange patina, weathering steel can make structures seem unfinished or past their shelf life to the casual observer – but this doesn’t mean that they are.  Some iconic buildings have purposely opted for this industrial look – including John Deere’s HQ in Illinois and, in the UK, Antony Gormley’s lauded Angel of the North sculpture in Gateshead is made from weathering steel, which gives it its distinctive orange colour.

“The main problem is the joints in structures like this tend to exhibit corrosion over time,” Miller explains.

“This can put tension in the tower’s rivets. So, one of the big pieces of work we needed to do was to map out this crevice corrosion,” explains Miller.

Another challenge was accessing two towers that were so precariously situated, at either side of the waterway – one by a dam, another across the river.

Exo decided the safest way to inspect the towers was virtually – using a drone – and feeding the resulting footage into a digital twin to create a detailed 3D model.

MicroStation vendor Bentley System’s iTwin software was used to process 250 gigabytes of high-resolution drone-captured photos into a reality mesh model.

“It took us a couple of days to get the drone footage, but it meant that we could then measure the dimensional characteristics of the tower so that we could do the modelling despite the lack of existing drawings,” says Miller.

“This also helps us look at how much corrosion has occurred in the towers’ crevices,” he adds.

Miller was impressed with the detail the engineers were able to view in the digital twin which allowed the team to virtually access and measure the degrees of corrosion.

“Once you have that 3D mesh model you can do almost anything you would have been able to do if you had hand climbed up that tower,” he says.

“You can see all that detail – we are getting down to one eight-inch tolerances on the detail – which means you can see faces and rivets and the condition of the services at these locations,” he adds.

A test of strength

Based on the digital twin, the team began the job of determining the structural stability of the towers. “One of the things that we looked at was rivet capacity,” says Miller. “Back in the 1920s there were lots of different strengths of rivets and we needed to figure out which ones were used.”

This was done using Bentley’s Power Line System, a piece of software that automates the calculation of design loads and checks strength according to international standards.

The rivets on the towers turned out to be strong – 24 kips [a ‘kip’ being a unit of force that’s equal to 1,000 pounds of force]. “That was good because the structures were also taking on all the tension from the crevice corrosion,” Miller adds.

Once the strength of the structure was established the next step was to examine how best to remediate the crevice corrosion.

The French connection

Because there’s plenty of older infrastructure in the US facing the same challenges – and back then there was no unified standards on what materials to use, it varied from state-to-state and project-to-project – there have been a few ‘best practice’ studies to draw from.

Data that the Exo team drew from included a study undertaken at Purdue University which canvassed all the Department of Transports in the US, to find the best ways of remediating crevice corrosion.

Miller also found another Czech study which pointed to ways in which infrastructure which used a lot of weathering steel could be rectified -so long as it was not badly corroded.

The team also looked at structures from around the world, including the Eiffel Tower. Designed by Gustav Eiffel in 1889 for the World Fair, the wrought iron structure possesses a similar riveted construction to the towers in Ohio.

A symbol of Paris for more than a century, the tower was only meant to be temporary with an estimated life of 25 years. However, its puddle iron structure has stood the test of time – so long as it’s treated to a lick of paint every 7 years.

“These structures last a lot longer than we think they are going to, so long as they are well maintained. Steel towers don’t have an expiration date,” says Miller.

Drawing on this data and a variety of studies, the team produced a three-step process that will effectively treat and protect the Ohio towers for another 30 or 40 years of service life.

Reaping the rewards

According to Exo, the decision to remediate rather than rebuild, made possible through a digital twin, has saved the utility company a potential ten years of permitting delays and approximately $80 million dollars building a new tower crossing.

The project also impressed the judges of Bentley Systems  Year in Infrastructure and Going Digital Awards this year. Considered the ‘Oscars for Infrastructure’, Ohio Falls River Crossing beat all the competition in Transmission and Distribution to become the winner in its category.

Read more: Intel to build $20 billion chip manufacturing plant in Ohio

The post How the Eiffel Tower and a digital twin saved one utility project $80K appeared first on TechInformed.

In October alone, AWS announced an agreement with Energy Northwest to develop a quartet of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) that will eventually deliver 960MW of power. It is also investing in SMR maker X-energy and concluded a deal to locate a data centre next to a traditional nuclear facility in Pennsylvania.

This came as Google inked a deal with Kairos Power covering a “fleet of advanced nuclear power projects”. And Microsoft has struck a deal to restart a mothballed nuclear reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, site of a notorious partial meltdown at another reactor in the 1970s.

The Three Mile Island disaster put the seal on nuclear energy’s problematic reputation. And this was amplified by the Chernobyl disaster in the 1980s. A decade ago, there was a drive to shutdown aging nuclear facilities – Germany has since eradicated its nuclear sector completely.

But the energy landscape has changed, in part, due to the focus on reducing carbon emissions, and a drive towards electrification, not least in transport. The geopolitical environment has also changed dramatically, with energy sovereignty a priority for many governments.

So, nuclear has been reborn as an, if not utterly green, certainly carbon free energy source. Which is precisely what data centre operators desperately need – and by implication, what their enterprise customers and consumers or enterprises, are demanding.

The International Energy Agency expects electricity consumption by data centres to double by 2026, fuelled by GenAI, as well as cryptocurrency. While data centres sucked in an estimated 460TWh worldwide in 2022, this is likely to stand at 1000TWh in 2026, roughly the equivalent of Japan’s entire electricity consumption.

Data centre industry veteran, and president of the European Data Centre Association, Lex Coors says the industry is already facing a shortage of capacity, so “It’s about what are the options. What energy sources can I find? How do they fit in zero carbon emissions?”

The smaller nuclear option

Nuclear raises particular concerns, such as radiation and disposing of waste. But, he added, other options also present problems. “Even if I would put in fields and fields of solar, they also have an issue. There’s nothing growing underneath. There’s always a counter side to the benefit.”

But it is also clear that traditional nuclear plants aren’t going to fill the gap anytime soon. Even if a traditional gigawatt nuclear plant could be fast-tracked, the grid networks in many major economies are creaking, making it hard to get the energy to where it is actually needed.

Hence the appeal of small modular reactors, explains Philip Vaughan, a Policy Fellow of the Nuclear Institute. These produce from 20MW to 470MW, enough to directly power a hyperscale data centre, while sidestepping the need to draw from the grid. They are largely built in factories, Vaughan explains. This should ensure more consistency around quality and delivery.

Vaughan says big tech is recognising how this can meet their needs of providing permanent power, reliably, with a much smaller footprint. And they don’t have to worry about that power being diverted somewhere else. “Fundamentally they can own that power, so they have complete control over it.”

Likewise, SMRs give the ability to produce not just electricity but “high temperature energy”, which can be used in other industrial processes, or for district heating. “There’s a versatility that is new to the nuclear industry.”

Not everyone is convinced. Dr Doug Parr, Policy Director for Greenpeace UK says, “The examples of SMR development we have seen so far have had the familiar delays and cost overruns common to new reactor designs, and the only solution they offer to the drawbacks of nuclear power is to distribute them across a wider area.”

Moreover, as Coors points out, SMR designs also need approvals. There are still local planning issues to surmount. The effort to rebrand nuclear energy as green might crumble in the face of local opposition, already unhappy about the prospect of a data centre being thrown up on their doorstep.

But there are also broader challenges, Coors says. “Think about security, transport of fuels, storage of the fuels? How many rings of security do I need to put around my data centre?”

At Greenpeace, Parr asks, “Will Silicon Valley be taking responsibility for their own nuclear waste disposal and site decontamination as well as power generation?”

That’s assuming operators can secure fuels in the first place. There’s a drive to boost uranium mining in the US, but as energy systems firm Schneider Electric’s chief advocate for data centres, Steve Carlini says, this has resulted in local opposition.

And there’s a skills issue to tackle. As Vaughan says, the nuclear industry is greying. SMRs, by their nature, will not require so many highly skilled nuclear specialists on site, he suggests.

However, Coors adds, the industry still needs to train people up and convince them that it will stick with nuclear as a power option into the future. “We need to make sure we don’t send people to university to get a degree on nuclear, if this is just a trend of 10 to 15 years.”

Power up

And timelines are a problem. AWS’s announcement says delivery of the Energy Northwest SMRs will “help meet the forecast energy needs of the Pacific Northwest beginning in the early 2030s.” It will be 2035 before Google’s first tranche of SMRs are fully online.

This means that big tech will be looking to other options to fill a widening energy gap in the meantime. Carlini says this could see data centre operators turning to the sort of gas turbines X reportedly installed to power its xAI project. Being gas-based, they are hardly green.

At the same time, data centre operators are putting in more and more energy storage systems in their facilities, raising the potential of “microgrids”, he says. “Once you get two hours of energy storage, then you’re going to be able to collaborate with utilities.” This could mean storing excess energy from renewables in data centres, and even pumping it back into the network when the utility needs it.

Either way the data centre sector is facing an energy crunch right now and it’s only going to get worse. Carlini says the big operators are stepping up and investing their own money in solving the energy gap. And right now nuclear does seem to be the long-term destination.

The post Will tomorrow’s cloud be nuclear powered? appeared first on TechInformed.